FireMedic's hydroponics idea - success fail stories

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knifegill;4909274; said:
I have over 12 feet of pothos growing out of my 55g. It has long roots and robust leaves. And does nothing noticeable to my nitrates. Do you need to have hard water for this to work? I also have spider plants and a willow branch, all growing profusely to no effect.
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my sump is crazy full of pothos w/ very long inter winding roots. I have had plants in the main water column for sometime now too. I never really noticed a difference, i know it has to be doing something, but nothing noticeable. Now i have resorted to the drip system and that makes a HUGE impact even though on one of my tanks (210) is dripping 4 gph i am still at 20ppm.

So i believe it is not magic, it will not do/or replace any amount of water changes IMO.
 
You guys must have too much stock for the pothos to make a big impact. My 150 has a gigantic pothos plant growing, but the tank is a little overstocked and still has pretty high nitrates. My 75 on the other hand is a juvie SAL, 20 glow light tetras, and a couple otos and the pothos work wonders on the nitrates in there. And no, thank you, I'm not too stupid to correctly complete the AP liquid test per instructions. ~5 ppm of nitrates is the real reading. I actually thought the test might be defective, so I checked my turtle tank and got nitrates through the roof, so my nitrate test works.
 
i have 4 rays a RTC24" and a 20" aro in my 280. Before i put pothos plants in there the TRUE nitrate test was 120ppm. It has been almost 3weeks without a WC and my trates are 20ppm.... Pothos are doing something... thats all im saying... proof proof proof!
 
knifegill;4908762; said:
Seems like water lettuce is picky about light spectrum. I've had it pwn some tanks while piddling away in others, and switching lights evened things out.
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I agree.Only really multiplied fast in my outdoor setups, i.e. sunlight.The only thing it ended up being good for besides natural filtration was that I could feed it off to things!Ever see a 7" cray eat a full grown WL Florette?!
GNAR!

Oh, and STILL to you guys with the pothos problems, it feels odd that I throw away more than you can even come close to growing.I'm not talking junk in the least...it's just REALLY that easy to grow.
I believe the 12 foot runner, all day.I cut off 5-6 feet a month on a normally stocked tank.
Holla.
 
Yes, a 50% water change cuts my nitrate reading in half. It's probably true that my stock is just too high.

I've got a DSB in my 5 gallon tank with 2 Dwarf Puffers and a 4" banjo catfish. Nitrates below 5ppm every week. I think I'm going to change the substrate to sand in my 55g and see what those wonderful anaerobes can do for me.
 
I think that if the Pothos is busy growing fast then it is stripping out the most Nitrate that it can...until it get growing it can be a pain and when it is growing more slowly it probably takes less out. Therefore I THINK it probably does its best when in the maximum growing phase.
 
I think if you factor in our tendencies to overstock, overfeed, and underfilter, it's easy to see that for this to work it may take more then a few feet or couple plants to make a difference. Maybe you need to use a really bright Pathos stuffed sump the same size as the tank... :)

Holla!?? :ROFL:
 
150 gallon 2x 50% wc per week I feed two times per day

10" motoro
3 6" red hook silver dollars
3 6" tin foil barbs
1 5" geo stein

Normal nitrate reading after a water change is about 40 PPM.

Added Pothos to ac110(about 6-8 individual small plants) on feb. 22 did water change nitrate 40ppm

Fri Feb 25th did water change nitrate between 20-40 ppm

Tuesday March 1st did water change nitrate at or just above 20 ppm

Tank is filtered by an fx5 full of potscrubbers, ac110 with a sponge and bio media, and a hot magnum for water polishing

Only light on the plants is direct sunlight from a window

I have noticed a drop within a week it hasn't been huge but it has dropped.

Can't wait to see what it says on Friday :)
 
johno27;4932463; said:
150 gallon 2x 50% wc per week I feed two times per day

10" motoro
3 6" red hook silver dollars
3 6" tin foil barbs
1 5" geo stein

Normal nitrate reading after a water change is about 40 PPM.

Added Pothos to ac110(about 6-8 individual small plants) on feb. 22 did water change nitrate 40ppm

Fri Feb 25th did water change nitrate between 20-40 ppm

Tuesday March 1st did water change nitrate at or just above 20 ppm

Tank is filtered by an fx5 full of potscrubbers, ac110 with a sponge and bio media, and a hot magnum for water polishing

Only light on the plants is direct sunlight from a window

I have noticed a drop within a week it hasn't been huge but it has dropped.

Can't wait to see what it says on Friday :)
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Would you say that you have not upped your water change regime or test readings due to the interest of the Nitrate outcome after adding the Pothos? i.e. you may have been a bit better on water changes due to the interest factor?

If not then it must be the pothos?

To DB junkie...If / when I do my fish room I do plan to have something like a 6X3X2 Sump with free air above and decent lighting just to try and grow terrestrial plants above and have this as PART of the system, it will be an interesting experiment and I think water cress will be good as I grew that easily in my sump, you could measure the growth daily!, I just couldnt get enough in to the sump to make it work due to the various sections of my 5X3X2 sump (only about 18 inches was available)
 
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